Dick Connor Writing Awards

The PFWA’s Dick Connor Writing Awards encompass news, game stories, columns, features, enterprise features and blogs written by PFWA members.

The yearly award period begins after the Super Bowl and continues through the following year’s Super Bowl.

The awards are named for Connor, the ninth PFWA president (1980-81) and the organization’s 1991 Dick McCann Award recipient, who worked for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News. He started at the News in 1961 and moved to the Post in 1965. He went back to the News in 1982, but returned to The Post in 1988, where he worked until his death in 1992.

Connor was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame in 1992 and was a 22-time Colorado Sports Writer of the Year honoree, including 18 consecutive years at one point. He was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.

Game Stories
1. (Tie) Jenny Vrentas, SI.com/TheMMQB: ‘A team makes a miracle’: How the underdog Eagles became the unlikeliest Super Bowl champs; Ben Shpigel, New York Times: At long last, the Eagles capture their first Super Bowl; Greg Bishop, Sports Illustrated: A play pall for the ages and a (backup) QB that amazes: How the Eagles won Super Bowl LII
2. Ben Goessling, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Game and playoff dream appeared over – until Stefon Diggs came to the rescue

Columns
1. Greg Bishop, Sports Illustrated: How Blair Walsh’s infamous missed field goal may have saved a young fan’s life
2. Peter Bukowski, SB Nation: What people really mean when they say “Stick to Sports”
3. (Tie) Paul Woody, Richmond Times-Dispatch: Countess’ vicious hit a vivid reminder of football’s danger; Scott Fowler, Charlotte Observer: Only one way for Panthers to remove stain of bombshell report on Jerry Richardson

Columns
1. (Tie) Seth Wickersham, ESPN The Magazine: How a Brady-Goodell connection lingered over the Super Bowl; Ian O’Connor, ESPN.com: Love, not rage, fueled Tom Brady’s legendary Super Bowl LI win
2. Paul Woody, Richmond Times-Dispatch: 49ers QB Kaepernick has right to his position on the national anthem
3. Howard Balzer, all22.com: How the NFL has changed since the retirement of Pete Rozelle

Features
1. (Tie) Jenny Vrentas, TheMMQB.com: The Legend of Dennis Byrd; Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press: Erik Kramer lived to tell his story after attempting suicide
2. Scott Fowler, Charlotte Observer: Rae Carruth’s son will be at prison gates when father who wanted him dead goes free
3. Ian O’Connor, ESPN.com: Meet the devastated parents who want to save football from itself

Enterprise Features
1. Seth Wickersham, ESPN The Magazine: The Wow Factor (the events leading to the vote on where the new stadium in Los Angeles would be built)
2. Greg Bishop, Sports Illustrated: Football in America (a lengthy analysis of how people in various parts of America view the NFL)
3. Tim Graham, Buffalo News: Part I: Who do you think you are? Bjorn Nittmo? Part II: Finding Nittmo: Answers, finally, from the NFL kicker who disappeared

2016 Winners

News
1. Greg Bishop, Sports Illustrated: After career-threatening injury, Lockette wants to return to football
2. Dave Weinberg, Press of Atlantic City: Lurie: Hiring Chip Kelly was a gamble that didn’t pay off
3. Chris Tomasson, St. Paul Pioneer Press: Adrian Peterson returns to Vikings, says he still has love for the team

Game Stories
1. Greg Bishop, Sports Illustrated: Super Bowl XLIX: A dramatic fourth-quarter comeback over the Seahawks vaulted a previously unknown cornerback into the spotlight and established Tom Brady as one of the best quarterbacks of all time
2. Jenny Vrentas, TheMMQB.com: Rogers’ Starr Moment
3. (Tie) Rob Demovsky, ESPN.com: Aaron Rodgers pulls off fake spike play in Packers’ winning drive; Ralph Vacchiano, New York Daily News: Bryant, Dallas in shock

Columns
1. (Tie) Scott Pitoniak, Rochester Business Journal: Reflections on the heroic life and legacy of a Buffalo Bill; Scott Pitoniak, Rochester Business Journal: Kelly’s finest hours have come during his most trying times
2. David Weinberg, Press of Atlantic City: Christie needs to grow up
3. Ralph Vacchiano, New York Daily News: The question had dogged Tom Coughlin for more than a decade …

Features
1. Tyler Dunne, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Finding Favre: Packers legend talks about life after football and how he still scratches his competitive itch
2. Jason Wilde, ESPNWisconsin.com: Wish granted: For Kellan Meinke and his family, a weekend with the Packers was just what the doctor ordered – a break from the difficult reality of his rare, complicated illness
3. (Tie) Zac Boyer, Washington Times: Drive to be a winner: Unorthodox path led Jay Gruden out of his big brother’s shadow to NFL; Seth Wickersham, ESPN the Magazine: Walking the Fault Line
Honorable Mention: Kevin Armstrong, New York Daily News: From the Beginning to the end? With Giant Future uncertain, Coughlin returns to Jacksonville, where his head coaching career began; Ralph Vacchiano, New York Daily News: 4 days at the camp that turns young QBs from Boys to Mann